Programme
BARRIO SONORO
A Global Sound Exploration in Berlin
Concert Series 28. March 2026 I 25. April 2026 I 16. May 2026 I 11. July 2026
Barrio Sonoro is a new concert series in Berlin that seeks to explore and showcase the rich legacy of global popular music. Featuring artists from all corners of the world, largely based in Berlin. This season offers an in-depth look at the musical heritage of regions such as Brazil, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Africa , Cape Verde, the Mediterranean & Bulgaria. With an emphasis on popular music and the musical traditions that shape local scenes, Barrio Sonoro serves as both a forecast and a reflection of Berlin’s evolving artistic landscape.
A series created in collaboration with Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile. Curated and produced by Héléna Fontaine and Félix Huet from A Panda do Sol.
16. May 2026
Lutchinha Leite Quarteto
The Lutchinha Leite Quartet brings one of Cape Verde’s most cherished voices to Berlin. Born Maria Neves Leite on São Vicente, Lutchinha has spent forty years performing across Europe, Africa, and the U.S., while nurturing Cape Verdean culture in her Brockton community. Deeply rooted in morna, coladeira, and other traditional forms that intertwine African rhythmic heritage with Lusophone melodic sensibility, her voice carries both the saudade and the resilience at the heart of Cabo Verdean identity.
She will be joined by pianist Igor Sassety, coming straight from São Vicente (Cape Verde) and by Félix Huet and Héléna Fontaine from the Berlin project A Panda do Sol on guitar, cavaquinho, and vocals. The four musicians first met one night at the legendary Bombu Mininu in Mindelo and have been musically bonded ever since. After two years of trying, they will finally reunite for this special evening at Barrio Sonoro, offering a transatlantic celebration of Cape Verdean song, rhythm, and memory.
Musicians:
Lutchinha Leite - Vocals
Igor Sassety - Piano
Félix Huet - Guitar, vocals
Héléna Fontaine - Cavaquinho, vocals
Grupo Alafia con Iré
Alafia con Iré is an Afro-Cuban music collective uniting artists from Havana and Berlin, dedicated to the living traditions of Cuban rumba and sacred Afro-Cuban drumming. Rooted in community practice, the ensemble brings to the stage the vibrant interplay of Batá, Cajón, song, and dance, honoring the ceremonial, social, and festive dimensions from which these forms emerge. Their performances evoke the spirit of Havana’s barrios and religious gatherings while situating these traditions within Berlin’s intercultural cultural landscape.
Over the years, Alafia con Iré has become a reference point for Afro-Cuban culture in Berlin, recognized for its authenticity, musical rigor, and deep connection to tradition. The collective’s members are active across the city’s Latin and world music scenes, collaborating with various rumba, salsa, jazz, and folkloric projects, thereby weaving Afro-Cuban heritage into a broad network of contemporary artistic exchange.
Musicians:
Rasiel Almanza
Angel Candeaux
Lila Charon
Matteo Bowinkelmann
Florian Schade
Vito Giacovelli
Chucho Palma
Regis Molina
Sevastopol Unity
A lost youth archive from Crimea before 2014
Sevastopol Unity is a documentary photo project exploring youth, culture, and everyday life in Crimea before the occupation. The exhibition presents rare photographs and scans from film negatives taken out of Crimea, preserving fragments of personal and collective memory.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an ambient set featuring field recordings from Crimea. The collected materials — including photographs, maps, interviews, and personal stories — have been brought together in a photobook. During the exhibition, authors will also host a presentation of the book.
Admission is free
SCHEDULE
16.05
15:00 — Open photo exhibition
19:00 — Official opening with free drinks and music
20:00 — Public talk: project story and concept
22:00 — Closing
17.05
12:00 — Open photo exhibition
19:00 — Public talk: stories behind the photographs and places
21:00 — Closing
16 May 2026 I Doors: 15:00 I Official openning: 19:00
[Lysty Nenadislani] Letters Unsent
Maria Kebuladze and Odarka Zyrko
Concert 26. April 2026 I Doors: 18:30 I Start: 19:30
[Lysty Nenadislani] Letters Unsent is an upcoming album by Maria Kebuladze, a Ukrainian singer and producer from Kyiv. Before releasing this intimate work into the world, the artist invites listeners to experience it live, together. The album is woven from poetry written over the past four years — embracing imperfections and deeply inspired by trip-hop and hauntology. It is layered with granulated soundscapes, fragments of memory, and reflections on life “before and after.”
It is a story of words lost in translation, of messages and emotions dissolving within shifting realities — a collection of diverse experiences bound together by one of humanity’s most devastating creations: war. The performance is accompanied by visuals crafted by Ukrainian artist Hanna Zviagintseva and VJ Mariia Yakovenko, featuring Maksym Kalinichenko’s translations of Maria’s lyrics from Ukrainian into English.
Opening act from Ukrainian sound artist Odarka Zyrko, born in Minsk and raised in Kyiv. Her album A Year in Sounds and Whispers reflects on life, love, and quiet moments, like sunny winter mornings, Berlin’s nature becoming familiar, and the tenderness of memory. It also moves through more unsettling terrains: distorted homesickness, the witnessing of police violence, the spread of war and genocide, social blindness, loss, displacement, and the quiet urgency to act. As a close friend once described it: “a work that is simultaneously hopeless and hopeful.”
Regular classes and workshops at Hotel Continental
STUDIO UKRAINE
Open Sewing Workshops
Every Wednesday from 18:00 - 21:00 our Craft Space is open for your creativity: Join us for exploring the world of textile and the creative techniques it has on offer.
Participation is free.
Donations for materials are welcome.
For inquiries, please contact Kateryna Serbinova
STUDIO UKRAINE
Open Sketching Classes
Art classes for everyone: We offer weekly sketching sessions with live models to improve your artistic skills, to join other artists and amateurs and to explore the magic of the human body.
Participation is free.
Donations for materials are welcome.
Every Tuesday and Friday, 19:00 - 21:00
Conference Room or Craft Space
For inquiries, please contact Kateryna Serbinova
BERLINER OPPORTUNE
International Choir
Berliner Opportune is an international amateur choir based in Berlin. Open to all without auditions, we believe in music as a space for connection, expression, and collective growth."
Every Thursday, 19:00 - 21:00
Conference Room
For inquiries, please contact via instagram